Companies are moving through a cautious but competitive hiring landscape in late 2025. HR leaders face rising pressure to fill key roles quickly. They must balance speed with quality, culture, and long-term potential. That balance has become harder to achieve. In fields like architecture, engineering, and consulting(AEC), the demand for skilled professionals continues to…
Companies are moving through a cautious but competitive hiring landscape in late 2025. HR leaders face rising pressure to fill key roles quickly. They must balance speed with quality, culture, and long-term potential. That balance has become harder to achieve. In fields like architecture, engineering, and consulting(AEC), the demand for skilled professionals continues to grow. These firms depend on experience and precision to deliver results. Yet many struggle to find mid-level employees who can work independently and still have room to grow. The result is a widening talent gap that challenges how organizations hire, train, and retain their people.
When the “perfect fit” is increasingly rare, how can organizations evolve their hiring and retention strategies to build strong, loyal teams from the available talent?
Danielle Zigmond, the Talent Acquisitions Manager at The Encompass Group, joins Daniel Litwin, “the voice of B2B,” in the MarketScale Media booth at the HR Southwest Conference 2025 to explore how forward-thinking HR leaders are redefining success. Together, they discuss why investing in people and not perfection is emerging as the smartest path to sustainable talent growth.
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
- The mid-level gap is widening – AEC firms are struggling to find professionals who are experienced enough to work independently but not yet at the executive level. This “missing middle” has become one of the most competitive hiring segments.
- Growth potential beats perfection –Zigmond urges organizations to stop chasing the “perfect hire” and instead invest in trainable talent. Hiring candidates with promise and developing their skills through strategic upskilling creates stronger, more loyal employees in the long run.
- Retention stems from genuine care – Employees stay when they feel genuinely valued, not just compensated. Authentic leadership care and individualized growth plans create emotional loyalty that benefits both sides.
- Vulnerability creates trust – When leaders admit mistakes and model accountability, they build psychological safety. That openness encourages transparency and stronger team cohesion.
- HR strategy is evolving beyond administration – Today’s top HR professionals aren’t just maintaining systems; they’re steering organizational change, crafting talent strategies, and shaping company culture at the highest level.
Danielle Zigmond is a Talent Acquisition Manager at The Encompass Group, specializing in recruiting and aligning talent with organizational culture and values. She has over eight years of experience in human capital management, executive search, and HR technology integration. Her work focuses on helping businesses enhance efficiency and growth through strategic hiring and people optimization solutions.
Article written by Sonia Gossai
Video TranscriptExpand ↓
What's going on y'all? It's Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b. Welcome to another MarketScale media interview here at the MarketScale media booth at HR Southwest Conference twenty twenty five. We're here with Danielle from the Encompass Group. Danielle, welcome. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you for being here. So tell our audience a little bit more about what the Encompass Group does and your position and its relationship to this HR ecosystem we're in. Oh my gosh. Okay. So what don't we do? We specialize in all things HR, human capital consulting being one of our primary avenues. We also have a lot of avenues down the HRIS platforms. We are a third party agency. We work with companies across the United States in pretty much any agency or any industry that you can think of. I mean, and retention is a big HR priority, obviously. Where are you seeing major challenges today in the clients that you serve around finding good talent? We work a lot in AEC, so architecture, engineering, consulting. And the biggest pain point that we're seeing in that area is right now they need that mid level person who is dangerous enough. They've been doing it long enough that they don't really need their handheld a whole bunch, but at the same time, not senior enough where they're leading an entire division. In previous interviews I was having, folks were saying that one of the most important things that, you know, hiring team can do today is invest in people knowing that they're not actually gonna be that ideal person for the role until maybe a year end. When y'all are helping curate those people for your clients, do you often advise them on, hey. I know this person maybe is not the best on paper, but, like, you invest in them a year in, they are gonna be where you need them to be. How do y'all maneuver that strategically? That has been a really successful tool for us to help our clients get the talent that they need. And I think there are a few of our clients where they are hyper, hyper niche. And honestly, because of a few dynamics in the market that I'm sure everybody's feeling, they want to be a little bit more cautious. They don't want to pull the trigger on somebody who needs a lot of ramp up time and they have the ability to wait. And so we're finding a little bit of a middle ground, but A lot of times looking at somebody that you can invest in and and train up to be who you need them to be, that's your only option, and sometimes it's the best option too. What are the tried and true strategies that y'all are seeing help Keep. A A new employee roots planted at that company. So I think the biggest thing that we're seeing right now, the longest tenure that we're seeing with our clients is people who actually care about their employees. That's the tried and true through everything. You can have a phenomenal benefits package, but if you don't actually care about that individual, they can feel that, they can sense it. And so they're not going be as sticky, which is what you want them to be. And so I think just making sure that you understand that they're a person, that you care about their well-being, that's a huge one. But even taking it a step further and thinking about, like, the care for their professional career, how they want to grow, how they want to expand themselves. If you have a more proactive thought around that, people are going to see that you care about wanting them to develop in their career and they don't need to look elsewhere because they're getting what they need from their current employer. Yeah. How do you take something from an ideal and a nice to have that we know works to, yes, I've actually built a culture where people are valued and recognized and they can feel it and they know it's earned and real. I think where I would probably start and where we see a lot of our clients start is vulnerability. Yeah. I think if you give it, people will flip that around and give that right back to you. And I think that's how you build trust. If you can own something and say, Hey guys, this didn't go the way that I planned. I'm gonna own my part of this. This is what I would've done differently. And you can offer that up. People see that you're human, that it's okay to make mistakes, that it's okay to learn from those mistakes too. And so when you have that sort of environment, people will tap into that. What is helping HR professionals stand out through the hiring process today? So I think the most encouraging thing that we've seen from our clients lately is that they're looking for HR professionals who can help them create a strategy. Four is somebody who can point to all of the things that they've accomplished, their ideas, how they have been able to shift companies forward previously. That's a huge one. Beyond that, how you can craft something new and different Yeah. Is kind of what they've been gravitating more towards other than somebody who's just been doing the same whole thing and kind of keeping the boat afloat. They want somebody to captain the ship a little bit more. How does a young HR professional prove they have what it takes to map strategy? Focusing on where you've had your hand on the ball is the biggest thing. The things that you've thrown up your hand and said, like, I helped with this initiative, or maybe I wasn't the the mastermind behind this, but this is how executed and this is how I might have done it differently. All right. That does it. Danielle with the Encompass Group. Thank you so much. Folks want to learn more about the work that Encompass Group is doing. Maybe they want to put you all to task and help fill their next position. How can they get in touch? Yeah, so a few different ways. So encompassgroup dot com is a phenomenal way to get ahold of our entire organization. I'm on LinkedIn, Danielle Ziegman. Feel free to reach out if you've got any questions about that, but Encompass dot com is probably where to go. Easy peasy.
